Starting today, Serbia will take over the presidency of the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA), said Nenad Đurđević, adviser to the president of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce.
Đurđević pointed out that CEFTA is Serbia’s largest export market, with which this country has a large volume of exchange where it realizes a surplus.
“Until November of the current year, the total turnover is 5.4 billion euros, of which 3.9 billion are exports, and 1.4 billion are imports. So, two and a half billion is a surplus,” Đurđević told RTS.
He stated that Serbia, as the chairman, is making an agenda of priorities that have not been fulfilled, and it concerns the mutual recognition of documents in order to make it easier for companies to do business, which refers to the findings of the laboratory that they are valid for the entire territory of CEFTA so that retesting is not done.
Đurđević said that starting next year, he expects to introduce that companies can electronically submit documents at border crossings.
He pointed out that the CEFTA market is significant, but that it would be even more significant if they succeeded to remove some political disagreements or misunderstandings.
As the third priority, he mentioned the so-called e-commerce/electronic trade, where an agreement is made on postal packages, i.e. geolocation, and added that these are things that make modern business through electronic trade accessible, easy and cheap.
Bearing in mind the Development Plan for the Western Balkans adopted by the European Commission, Đurđević said that this plan relies on the creation of a common market in the Western Balkans, the Berlin Process and CEFTA, as the only trade agreement currently valid.
“The willingness of countries to participate and cooperate in the framework of creating a single market in the Balkans will be measured practically, and their willingness to be able to participate will be appreciated,” said Đurđević, Srna news agency writes.
